


Happy Little Trees

by Arsoemon



Series: ShuKita 100 [12]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Background Relationships, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Short One Shot, Slice of Life, Yusuke eating, Yusuke fangirling, Yutaba undertones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-07
Updated: 2019-12-07
Packaged: 2021-02-18 11:37:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21710149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsoemon/pseuds/Arsoemon
Summary: Futaba introduces Yusuke to a new friend
Relationships: Kitagawa Yusuke & Sakura Futaba, Kitagawa Yusuke/Kurusu Akira, Kitagawa Yusuke/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: ShuKita 100 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1485896
Comments: 12
Kudos: 48





	Happy Little Trees

**Author's Note:**

> We all very much have a comment on Sick Day to thank for this one◠‿◠

It's a calm, steady day at Leblanc. Sojiro is starting to put away some of the curry for the night, Akira is washing dishes, and Futaba is typing away on her laptop at the bar, Morgana lounging in her lap. Sojiro is just leaving for the night when Yusuke walks in.

"Hello."

"Hey," Morgana licks his paw.

"How'd the test go?" Akira fixes him a plate as Yusuke takes the seat next to Futaba.

"Well, I think. Thank you," he bows his head slightly as Akira sits the plate down. "I confess I will be glad to be done with this class." He begins eating.

"Is it hard?" Morgana peers at him.

"Not particularly," he says in between bites. "The teacher is stern, but generally reasonable. It's the other students I hope to escape soon."

"Hey Inari, I found something you might like." Futaba clicks away as Yusuke takes the last few spoonfuls of Wakaba's signature dish, his fingers gently brushing Akira's on the warm wood. They exchange small smiles as Akira twines their fingers together.

"You'll be staying, right?"

"Of course."

"Then I'll see you after work," he runs his thumb over Yusuke's knuckles before taking the empty plate to wash. He takes off the apron, and Morgana hops into his bag as he picks it up and heads out the door to Crossroads.

"He's an American painter who lost his pinky in the war!"

"Oh?"

"Actually, it was part of his index finger while he was a carpenter, but eh."

"Fascinating." Yusuke startles a bit at how loud the intro song starts off and smiles at the inexplicable nostalgia of the music and standard definition video. "What a lovely landscape."

_So let's start off and have them run all the colors across the screen that you need to paint along with me...._

"Oh! He will paint for the viewer. Will he be showing us how to make the intro one?"

"Not this episode but eventually."

The painter has only just begun working on the background yet Yusuke is already fully enrapt and hanging on to his every word. Yusuke gasps as his eyes widen. "Futaba! There are mountains!" He whispers excitedly. "A 'doer,' he said? Magnificent."

_These things become more personal to you. They become your friends._

"Yes! He is right!" Futaba smiles, mentally—and literally—high-fiving herself for another successful social interaction.

_And painting should make you happy. There's enough unhappy things in the world. Painting should be one of those things that brightens your day._

Yusuke's eyes widen and glaze over. "Yes! That's it...." Futaba waits for him to elaborate. He doesn't. "My word, the trees...." She figured he'd like the artwork and maybe glean some useful information from the technique, but she hadn't expected to see him near tears about it. She can understand why he would be, though. The wholesome simplicity and feelings of calm and peace are what drew her to the show—second only to the hair.

_And that does good things if people understand that all these little creatures, we've gotta take care of them. If we don't, nobody will._

Futaba can see a strengthened resolve in Yusuke's posture though his face is still contorted in awe.

"What a bold choice," Yusuke notes at the addition of a massive tree on the right side of the canvas.

_There's stones underneath the water that you don't see, and it causes little doers to happen in the water._

"What you don't see.... This man... a veritable fountain of wisdom!"

_Now then, let's get crazy._

"What does he mean?" He sounds frantic.

"It's gonna be good!" Futaba assures him.

"A tree that large?!"

"Watch the master work."

_And with that, I think we got a pretty nice old painting. Going to call that one finished. So from all of us here, happy painting, and God bless._

Yusuke makes a small disappointed noise. "Tell me there's more!"

"SO much more." She starts the next video, and before they know it, Akira is walking back in. "That was fast."

"What are you talking about? It's 10:30."

"Huh... guess we did watch 9 episodes."

"Akira! You must see! Wait, he's going to clean the brush...."

_And just beat the devil out of it._

Akira smirks, both at the amusing sound and how excited Yusuke is. He decides to leave them to it and finish the last of his homework.

_From all of us here, I want to wish you happy painting, and God bless, my friend._

"One more?"

"Perhaps two?"

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone is wondering which episode:  
> Beauty is Everywhere on Netflix, episode 6: Change of Seasons


End file.
